The Catalyst

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When President Obama held his end-of-year press conference last month, he struck a clear and upbeat tone: “A new future is ready to be written. We've set the stage for this American moment. And I'm going to spend every minute of my last two years making sure that we seize it.”

In 2014, the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) approved a record 41 new medicines, making it a particularly strong year of innovation for America’s biopharmaceutical companies. This continues a trend in recent years towards a higher annual number of new medicines.

By all accounts, 2014 presented a number of opportunities and challenges that highlighted just how important it is to keep the patient at the center of our ongoing efforts. It’s a notion that extends well beyond our industry, and should be a guiding principle as we head into 2015.

In 1989, while the world watched the Berlin Wall fall and history opened a new chapter, researchers in government and private labs half a world away were documenting a different beginning: the identification of the hepatitis C virus.

For the past 25 years, the resulting disease has remained largely incurable and often fatal for the world’s 170 million patients with the disease. Until now.

Today, I had the chance take part in a Google+ Hangout organized by TEDMED. A part of TEDMED’s Great Challenges series, the Hangout, titled, “A Delicate Balance: How Can We Rightsize Treatment Costs,?” was a lively discussion among stakeholders from across the health care ecosystem.

“When compounded products are not made according to strict quality standards appropriate for their scale of production, the results can be deadly.” Six public health organizations wrote this to FDA Commissioner Hamburg to voice strong support on FDA’s robust enforcement of the federal law on compounding.

Researchers in biopharmaceutical companies strive to discover and develop new medicines and vaccines that will help people to live longer, healthier lives. They go to work every day knowing that patients with life-threatening diseases live with the hope that tomorrow will bring a new medicine that will extend and improve lives.

Following several years of modest growth, a new study published in Health Affairs reports a record low health care spending increase of 3.6 percent in 2013. The last time the annual growth rate was any smaller, Dwight Eisenhower was President and a gallon of milk cost 49 cents. The year was 1960.

Today is World AIDS Day, and we’re examining the tremendous progress we’ve made turning what was once considered a virtual death sentence into a chronic condition. The fact that the death rate for HIV/AIDS patients has decreased nearly 85 percent since its peak in the mid-1990s is a testament to the dedicated researchers who worked tirelessly to develop new medicines like those that make up highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) that transformed how we treated the disease.

Today, United States Trade Representative Michael Froman is in India to participate in the U.S. – India Trade Policy Forum. Since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in May, Indian and U.S. leaders have held several meetings to further the relationship between our countries

With Black Friday just a few days away, holiday shopping madness is kicking into full gear. Deciding what to buy, comparing prices and ultimately making a decision can be stressful. The best advice for Black Friday also applies to shopping for health insurance:

Every November is Diabetes Awareness Month – a time to reflect on the progress we have made in treating the nearly 26 million Americans with the chronic disease. We take stock of new treatments, awareness, better adherence to diabetes medications and ask ourselves, “what more can we do?” to better treat this serious public health concern.